“Nori?” Hunter cut in impatiently.
She kept her voice low. “There’s a track off to the left about eighty meters ahead.”
“I know that one,” Payne answered. “It cuts between property lines, but Nori, it doesn’t go through.”
She raised a hand to hold Hunter quiet for a moment as he started to speak again. “The main track doesn’t,” she agreed. “But there’s a footpath in a hundred meters or so that breaks off to the north. It’s an old track that heads straight up and over the hills.”
“Alright then.”
Hunter said sharply, “You’re going to take us off-trail?”
She glanced at him, then back at the others. “Get ready,” she told them softly. “There are riders behind us and in front. We’re not going to meet them. Instead, we’re going left at that hanging tree, the one that looks like a gallows. Start staggering the dnu when we reach that dark notch in the barrier bushes. When I give the signal, light out. Hug the saddle, keep your head shielded and low. Your dnu will follow mine.”
“Weapons?” Fentris asked.
Payne shook his head. “They’ll see them in the moonlight and know they’ve been made. Better to dodge them than start an all-out fight. Right now, they don’t know we know that the rest are up ahead.”
“Well, I still don’t,” Fentris returned dryly. “I can’t see a thing.”
Payne grinned, a flash of white teeth in the dark. “Trust us, Tamrani,” he said.
“Drop back, Payne,” Nori told him softly. “Take up the rear with Uncle Wakje.”
“Don’t ride us into any traps.”
She grinned ferally. “Perhaps we’ll set a few.”
They kept the pace till they reached the notch, then subtly shifted so that the dnu were staggered in line. When Nori saw the break where the trail split away, she made a low, sharp sound to warn them. Then she spurred her dnu into the darkness. The creature, tensed with the increasing pressure from her knees, was just waiting to be released. It jumped like a beanpod and hit the trail at a dead run. Fentris was hard on her heels.
Nori’s dnu thundered down the dirt path, its hooves clipping divots and flinging them back. As the first branches snapped down, she threw one arm over her face and lay low around the saddle horn, along the dnu’s lean neck. She heard a single shout as the riders following saw them disappear. Then she had ears only for the trail.
Jackbraws and pelan blasted up from their night roosts, and at least one forest cat leapt away. Small creatures skittered into holes. Nori’s dnu bunched up to jump a log, and branches overhead scraped her back. They were a quick slap and burn; they didn’t even tear her jerkin. Then she was away again, with the others sailing over behind her.
It was Rishte who signaled the break in the trail. He pulled at her from the right. She whistled low, then whipped her dnu over. The riding beast charged down the rough path. She caught a glimpse of wolf; then the shape disappeared into shadow, but she could feel the Grey One ahead.
She kept them at a canter for almost fifteen minutes. By the time they stopped, they were all brush-whipped and stinging. “Shake off,” she told them as she pulled up in a clearing. None of them needed more urging. They were off their beasts and brushing off their clothes for ticks and gelbugs like a host of frenzied dancers. Fentris slapped at his hat, then cursed as he put a dent in its smooth top. There was a streak of sap, too, on his cloak. He muttered as he pried the sticky stuff apart where it held the folds together.
“We’ll head farther north at dawn,” the wolfwalker told them. “We should be able to circle back and meet the caravan the day after tomorrow.”
Wakje nodded, as did Payne and Kettre, but Hunter frowned and took her aside. “Nori, we can’t stay out here for two days.”
“I know,” she returned absently as she brushed her dnu down and checked its breathing. “We shouldn’t make the cozar worry, but we don’t have much choice.”
“I was thinking more of our gear,” he returned dryly.
That caught her attention. “What do you mean?”
“One night, it’ll be a bit cold, but alright. Two nights? We need cooking gear, sleeping bags, water filters, matches, that sort of thing if we’re going to stay out here. Rations would be nice, and skinning knives,” he added. “Wire for snares. Harness repair tack, extra socks.” He gestured at the overcast sky. “Bivvy sacks for rain.”
“You don’t, um, carry that with you?”
“Are you saying you do?”
“Well, yes.”
“Right now?” Now it was Hunter who stared at her in the dark. “You went out for an ale with all that in your saddlebags?”
She asked warily, “Why? What do you carry in yours?”
“A clean shirt, in case someone spills grog on me. Money. A hoofpick, an extra cinch strap. Riding things. Things that are useful in a tavern or on the road.”
She stifled a sigh. “You’re irritated.”
“You could say that. You’re telling me that you could keep going on this trail right now. Payne, too? And your uncle and your cousin?”
She exchanged a glance with her brother, then shrugged her answer.
“Piss on a dik-dik,” he muttered.
Payne watched the tall man stalk away toward Fentris, who was dabbing at a stain on his jerkin. “I think Tamrani style will be taking a bath this trip.”
She snorted a laugh, then sobered as he added, “It’s going to be interesting finding out how many chovas left the caravan when we did.”
“Aye. They must not have gotten what they wanted at the wagon if there are so many riders out here.”
“You didn’t leave the second scout book?”
She shook her head. “I’ve been copying the one to the other.”
He lowered his voice. “And Brithanas still has his belt on. You don’t still think this is about delaying the council meetings, do you?”
“I don’t know.” She glanced over her shoulder, then back at her brother. “We have two completely different problems, Payne: the raiders—Harumen,” she corrected, “and plague. We’re still not sure about the first.”
“Or the second,” he pointed out.
She caught the carefulness of his voice and knew what he was thinking: to have Harumen fall into his lap was almost a guarantee of a high-level Journey. He was praying that Nori was reading the wolf wrong, that there would be no plague to shut down the county first. But the timing of the two problems bothered her.
“I don’t see how it matters right now.” He gestured with his chin toward their backtrail. “As Uncle Dangyon would say, first things first.”
“Aye,” she agreed softly. She went to the edge of the clearing and hunkered down. A few minutes later, Rishte crept forward and gazed into her eyes.
Wolfwalker, Nori-mine.
She smiled. The Grey One stretched his nose and nudged her hand. She closed her eyes and let herself feel him through her mind. There were the dank smells of earth, sweat-scent, hot breath, hot dnu. She opened her eyes again. “Grey One,” she whispered, “can you guide us? We want to run the trails tonight, escape the hunters behind us.”
He was both eager and reluctant. To have his wolfwalker in the forest, yes, but to have the others with her?
“They are packmates.” Her voice was sober. “You must choose them if you want to choose me.”
He snarled.
She waited.
His golden eyes gleamed, but she didn’t back down, and finally he subsided. This way, he told her. He broke the contact and slunk around the edge of the clearing.
She sent him a mental shaft of thanks.
His answer was a growl.
They rode another three kays in the dark up a dozen winding game trails. Their calves and knees were aching by the time she pulled up on a small plateau. She said they’d camp there for the night. No one spoke except to murmur. Even the dnu were quiet, and although Fentris looked sadly at his finely tooled jerkin, he didn’t complain when Kettre simply
took the garment out of his hands and plopped it down on the damp, grassy ground as his pillow. That the wolf was nearby let almost all of them sleep easier. Only Wakje and Nori were alert on watch for signs of predators.
It rained slightly in the night, and dawn was cold and damp, but the sky was clear with six of the nine moons visible, and the stars bright and distant. There was a clean scent to the air, as if the leaves had been washed and were now turning out to be seen. Nori smiled faintly as she lifted her face to the cold breeze. It was spring, dawn, and time to hunt. Rishte howled his agreement.
Hunter glanced at her, then at the oval patch beside her bed where the grass had been pressed down. The wolf might not be in sight, but he’d definitely been there that night. The grass was dry and musky.
They made cold camp, no fire. Kettre surprised them all with a handful of cold meatrolls, and Nori added a small bag of sour berries picked from an early vine, and a bark plate piled with raw tubers. With Payne’s jerky, and Wakje’s dried trail mix, it was almost a feast.
Hunter hid a grimace as Nori and the others ate quickly. He’d had to eat this way once before. It had been on a trail, when he’d met a scout who had graciously offered to share, but that had been on a dry summer evening, with a warm fire for roasting the tubers, and with fresh water, sweet berries, and grilled eerin. On a grey spring morning, chilled by a cold night and colder dew, with mud on half his gear, and no fire to warm his hands, he had to force himself to nod for his share.
Fentris took one look at the raw, dried and bitter foods, and blanched. He tried to follow Hunter’s suit, but when Nori pulled out a fresh extractor root with the dirt barely scrubbed from its skin and the acrid scent sharp in the cold air, Fentris started shaking his head. “No, no no.”
Nori paused in handing him a slice of the root. “What’s wrong?” She looked at Payne, puzzled, but her brother shrugged. Kettre caught the horror in the Tamrani’s eyes and hid a grin.
Hunter looked at the bare root in her hand and found himself agreeing with Fentris. “Wolfwalker, we appreciate that you saved our necks last night, but perhaps we could make yours a bit easier this morning.” He went to his saddlebag while the others watched curiously. He returned with a small velvet pouch, and Fentris breathed, “Thank the moons.”
Nori scowled at him.
“No offense, Black Wolf.” Hunter smiled faintly. “But I believe this, at least, we could contribute.”
She caught the small bag and opened it carefully. Her eyes widened. “Oh.”
Payne leaned over. “What is it?”
She tilted it toward him so he could see the fine, pale powder inside. Since the Ancients had intended to land on a different world, not this one, they had not been prepared for this world’s ecosystem. Almost all the indigenous plants and animals produced toxins for human bodies. A bite here and there wouldn’t kill, but there was a cumulative effect. Five or six meals without first extracting the toxins, and the brain grew sluggish. After that, the body grew slow, joints and muscles began to ache, strength disappeared, convulsions started, the senses went. Eventually there was coma. The Ancients’ solution had been a series of root plants based on oldEarth ginseng and horseradish. Raw or cooked, the extractor roots bound to toxins and passed them out of the body so that what was once poison became palatable. Unfortunately, most of the extractor plants that could grow in the wild were bitter as an un-Promised woman.
Nori touched just the tip of her finger to the fine, pale powder. “Hothouse?” she asked. “Gindenda?”
Hunter smiled wryly. “You recognize it.”
“I’ve a friend who specializes in exotics.” She touched her fingertip to her tongue and almost sighed in pleasure. Reluctantly she opened her eyes. “But this is too expensive. We can use wild root while we’re here.”
He shook his head. “There is plenty for a ninan for all of us. And frankly—” He glanced at Fentris. “—I think it’s safe to say that we’d just as soon use this.”
The other man nodded sharply. Kettre hid another grin as Nori shrugged. It was Tamrani gold, after all.
As they got ready to ride, Leanna hovered near the dnu while Fentris checked the saddles. The slim Tamrani glanced at the girl and hid a wry smile. She reminded him of Jianan, Hunter’s sister, a few years ago. Here, now, Leanna was as eager as he was, and it made him feel as if he were a Journey youth himself.
Leanna caught his indulgent smile, flushed, and edged uncomfortably away. Fentris lost his smile. He’d had Jianan’s blood on his hands. He prayed he wouldn’t see Leanna’s. He tugged at the last cinch strap, patted the dnu, and brushed the roan hairs off his sleeve, but he knew his expression was stiff.
Leanna glanced back warily. For all that the Tamrani acted the gentleman, he was supposed to have murdered his brother. She didn’t know what to say to him, or to Brithanas, for that matter. Black Wolf seemed to think both could be a threat, and that made Leanna tongue-tied. She couldn’t do much physically either. Her father had tried to teach her the basics in the martial art of Cansi, but she didn’t have the same determination that Payne or Nori had. That, and her two brothers could block every move she made and laugh at her while they did it. Her father had told her once that it wasn’t her fault. Women could be as quick as men, with better balance and timing, but they weren’t usually as strong. Unless they’d given over their morals, they weren’t usually as ruthless, either. It was because of their differences, he’d said. Men drew boundaries in their minds and cared nothing for what was outside them. They had no trouble striking at anything outside the wall. Women saw decision points, not walls, and changed themselves to suit the choice. Women could be more treacherous, aye, but they couldn’t afford to be hit. Their bodies weren’t made to survive the kinds of strikes a man could walk away from. Kilo for kilo, it was almost always easier to take them. Leanna looked at Hunter and Fentris, then at Nori, and wondered.
Nori caught her glance and murmured to Payne, “I wish Uncle Ki were with us.”
“He and Liam and Mye,” Payne agreed. “But that’s a wish on the second moon.” He watched her study the two trails that led out of the clearing. “We could keep going,” Payne suggested. “Head north, cut back toward the road near dawn. We’d end up somewhere near Camber. It’s a small place, but it’s right off Willow Road. We could get the jump on them that way.”
“There are still the message towers,” she reminded him. “And there’s the cozar to consider.”
Hunter came up beside them. “You mean that they’ll call another search?”
She shook her head. “We’re a large group, well armed, with more than one ranked scout. Especially after last night, they won’t call the search. The Ell will assume we’ve gone after the Harumen we picked out at Trial.” She hesitated. “North,” she said to Wakje. “And we’ll continue north until we get to a good vantage point and can tell who’s leading them and how big their group is.”
It had been more of a question than a statement, and the ex-raider nodded slowly. “North,” he agreed. “And west toward the cliffs. Lots of room there to set up ambushes, weak trails, rockfalls—”
But his words struck a chill in Nori. “No,” she said too sharply.
Wakje broke off. The others looked from Nori to her uncle.
Payne raised one eyebrow almost imperceptibly. Nori answered the same way. Rishte had been willing to take them north, as long as they avoided certain places along the line of the cliffs that were cut by a series of flooded creeks and sluggish swamps. Nori had already tried to turn them west into the canyons and take the water routes upstream, north and over to the River Phye. It was a rough route, difficult, and possible only if one knew the places to climb out and around the falls. Once in, one had to go all the way or be washed back down again. It would have lost them a day in getting to Shockton, but it might also have lost them the Harumen. With the clouds holding back a heavy rain, few city hunters would follow their prey into what could become a flash-flood death trap.
But Rishte had growled audibly when she’d tried it. He had picked up her sense of commitment—that once in streams, she would have to lead them all the way up to the end of that set of canyons before they could climb out again. He’d almost blinded her with the sense of death that he’d picked up from other wolves. It wasn’t the open streams that he feared, but the upper canyons where they’d end up, where the ancient cliffs were pocked and cracked, and at least two men had died.
Nori had felt a chill at the sense of human death. It had been recent, as if someone had been trapped in the canyons a month ago, died in the rains, and finally been washed out to the south. Plague left little to show itself, especially after the bodies had been in the water. Even if the bodies were recovered by scouts, they would have seen nothing that could not have been caused by spring fever or pogus flu.
“Not the cliffs,” she said flatly. “We stay on this side of the cliffs.”
Wakje hadn’t missed the exchange between brother and sister. He watched the wolfwalker expressionlessly for a moment. Then he nodded curtly.
Hunter and Fentris were left to frown after the three.
They rode for two hours on game tracks, following Nori and Rishte. Then the clouds darkened, and it rained, then poured—a shower that left the trees dripping and the trail slick on the steep parts. Heavy splats sounded each time a cupped leaf gave way beneath its load of water. On one side, then the other, branches shivered loudly and dropped short sprays of water when the pelan and palts took off. The dnu almost steamed with body heat. Nori ran her hand around the brim of her hat to release the last of the rain and scowled down at the trail. The rain made it even easier to see where they had gone, and there was nothing she could do about it. Until they hit a rootroad again, their tracks would be pressed almost permanently into the clay like a map of their intentions. Off-trail or on, they were too large a group. They simply couldn’t hide their passage.
When they reached one of the main trails, she pulled them up well back of the path and crept forward with her uncle. Together they studied the dirt track, counted out the prints they saw, and tested the soil for moisture.
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